Michelle Budig Named AAAS Fellow

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Michelle Budig, professor of sociology and senior vice president for faculty and academic affairs, was recently named to the 2024 class of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows. Becoming an AAAS Fellow is among the most prestigious honors bestowed by the scientific community. 

Budig was honored "for distinguished contributions to the field of sociology, particularly for research and scholarship on labor market inequalities, wage penalties for paid and unpaid caregiving, work-family policy and nonstandard employment." She is also a respected administrator at UMass who works closely with the provost and campus leadership to support faculty career progression from recruitment to retirement. 

“I would say it’s not a common award among sociologists, so I was thrilled to receive the news. It is heartening,” Budig says. “The support and mentorship I’ve received was critical to the accomplishments this award recognizes—you don’t just do your work in a silo all by yourself, so I want to express my gratitude to the UMass community.”

Budig is best known for her research exploring the interface between work and families, and how paid and unpaid caregiving responsibilities affect women’s employment outcomes. Budig has studied the motherhood wage penalty for nearly 23 years, contributing to the body of research showing that, when accounting for all other variables, mothers earn less than women without children. She has also shown evidence of a fatherhood bonus: net of extensive controls, fathers tend to earn more than men with no children.

Budig notes that when she and Paula England of New York University Abu Dhabi published their first article on the topic in 2001, there was very little research into the wage impacts of family structure among women and men. “And now it’s a very large literature, so we know a lot more about which women incur this penalty to a stronger degree and what are the contextual factors that moderate the penalty,” she adds.

In addition to her scholarship, Budig has become a key campus voice on faculty development. What began as her service as chair of the sociology department in 2015 led to a role as a Chancellor’s Leadership Fellow, focusing on professional development for mid-career faculty and subsequently to her proposal for the Office of Faculty Development (OFD). Soon after, Budig became UMass Amherst’s vice provost for faculty development, leading the creation and launch of OFD in fall 2019.

“That was an amazing time in my career,” she recalls. “It’s probably the most fun I have had, both because the level of enthusiasm was so high and faculty really wanted all of the things that OFD could provide, and there was a strong commitment from the Provost’s Office to make it happen.”

Months later, COVID-19 hit and OFD played an integral role in helping faculty and their students navigate the pandemic, an experience Budig calls “really rewarding.”

In 2021, Budig was appointed to her present position, adding responsibilities related to department reviews and accreditation, and new programs and degrees, particularly launching new programs at the Mount Ida Campus. Though she has handed off day-to-day operation of OFD, it still falls under her purview, and faculty development at all career stages remains a passion. 

“I came to UMass as a new Ph.D. in 2001, so my whole professional career has been here, and for me, entering these administrative roles was really an opportunity to give back to an institution that gave me a job and supported me throughout my career,” Budig says. “I’ve really enjoyed making change and supporting faculty on the campus.”
 

Learn more about UMass Amherst AAAS Fellows >